Sid Moore, Principal – Two Views

By Gene Carter and Marilyn Tompkins Bellert

Marilyn: You and I had very different experiences with Sid Moore. Actually, I met with Sid on only one occasion, a negative experience, while you were acquainted over a number of years and admired him.

Gene:  Unlike Will Rogers, I have met LOTS of people I didn’t like, but I never met someone from whom I couldn’t learn something. Looking back, I am surprised by how much I learned from Sid Moore.  Most students never talk with a principal at all, although we might have interacted with vice-principals Vernon Kirby or Arzell Ball.

Marilyn: I later came to think of Kirby as a stereotype administrator like Principal Ed Rooney in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Sid Moore was certainly more dignified.

Gene:  Sid told me, in his soft voice, “You likely don’t realize how hard some people will work and never do as well as you.” He was sending a message on humility, which I failed to learn. He thought I was humble, because I washed the jerseys in the school’s laundry for teams that I managed. 

Marilyn: You have said that Sid also contributed to the entrepreneurial skills you developed in high school; i.e., how to hustle.

Gene: Calvin Ross put me in charge of the student phone directory and then pennant sales, and for some reason I had to talk with Sid.  I figured student government always needed money for something, and what Calvin meant was make some.  I was concerned about the morality of making too much profit off students. Should we make one cent, two cents, or ten cents on each small pennant? Sid Moore said, “Oh, Heavens, charge a quarter.  You’ll sell as many at that price anyway.”  So, I learned some economics and marketing from Sid. Dave Alldritt skewered the pennant sales in stories in The Messenger because the student government did not know what it was going to do with the profits, which Dave described as exorbitant. We laughed a lot over Dave’s Gotcha game.

Marilyn: I was also a writer for The Messenger. Dave’s story on the pennant sales flap gave me a sense of entitlement to First Amendment rights as a reporter. If Dave could do it, so could I. This swash-buckling reporter attitude got me into trouble with Sid.

Gene: Sid called me in during the winter to gather information for a talk he was giving to Rotary about the wide variety of things high school students did. In my case, academics, laundry, and spirit gear hustling. He liked interacting with students.

Marilyn: Sid called me in to rake me over the coals for a Messenger editorial criticizing the faculty’s refusal to join an international student exchange program.  He shouted that I was disrespectful of my elders and threatened to call the college l planned to attend and withdraw his recommendation, which would cause my admission to be rescinded. I went over this walloping with you and Dave Alldritt. You had me laughing in short order.  As you predicted, Sid was bluffing about withdrawing his recommendation. Many years later, I cheered when the Supreme Court affirmed the First Amendment rights of student journalists. So there, Sid Moore.

Gene: My most interesting encounter with Sid came some years later when I was a junior in college.  He was in Chicago for a meeting and invited me out for dinner. What interested me was his humor (really), reflections on his life as a principal, and musings on post retirement.  Knowing that I was studying business, he talked about a flamboyant Wichita millionaire who had tried a bait and switch on him, offering a board of directors’ position that morphed into an investment in the guy’s next venture. Sid quietly explained this nonsense with a straight face while I laughed my head off. Sid also reflected on his years at Planeview High.

Marilyn: Before moving to East High, Sid was principal at the aptly-named Planeview, which served Air Force families during and after World War II.  Knowing what I have learned from you about Sid, I would guess that he did the job well.

Gene: I have gained so much from people 10 to 30 years older who just took time to talk with me. They’d simply lived longer.  I now saw Sid Moore as a guy who had more complexity than I realized.  Kindness is too scarce in life, and he took time to talk with me for no benefit to himself.  He was a generous person.

WSU Sid F. Moore Endowed Scholarship

“Sidney Moore, a native of Harper County, Kansas, attended Wichita University on scholarship, lettering in track and basketball. Graduating from WU in 1933 with a degree in elementary education, he earned his master’s from Phillips University in Enid, Oklahoma. He began his career as a basketball coach in several rural areas of Kansas, becoming principal of Bentley and later, Wichita Planeview High School from 1940-52. He would eventually spend 16 years as principal of Wichita High School East. Mr. Moore garnered widespread respect as an administrator who was knowledgeable of his students, coming to know most of them by their first names.

“He and his wife, May, a longtime elementary school teacher, spoke often of creating a scholarship for students pursuing a career in education. They believed that “the value of a good education and an excellent teacher go on and on….” When Mr. Moore passed away in 1992, Mrs. Moore resolved to establish a scholarship in his memory at WSU that would assist students planning to become teachers.”

Editor’s Note: The above memories of Sid Moore were originally published on this website in fall, 2020.